Sometime
in 2005, she saw that her geraniums were stunted and had an inkling
that it may have had to do with radio frequencies, since she placed
her plants in a Faraday cage, which is covered by a metal screen that
prevents radio frequency energy from "hitting" the plants.
Haggerty's inkling was correct, since her geraniums were suddenly
growing at a faster rate with larger leaves.

She
first planted the aspen seedlings in 2007, where one group was in a
Faraday cage, another was wrapped in fiberglass that didn't protect
the plants from radio waves and the third group was completely
unprotected. The procedure began in spring, and by the end of July,
there were noticeable differences in growth. Once October approached,
even the colors varied.

"I
found that the shielded seedlings produced more growth, longer
shoots, bigger leaves and more total leaf area," said Haggerty.
"The shielded group produced 60 percent more leaf area and 74
percent more shoot length than the mock-shielded group.

"The
leaves in the shielded
group produced striking fall colors, while the two exposed
groups stayed light green or yellow and were affected by areas of
dead leaf tissue. The shielded leaves turned red, which was a good
sign. The unshielded leaves in both exposed groups had extensive
decay, and some leaves fell off while they were still green."

According
to the U.S. Forest
Service researchers, drought conditions are likely the cause
of death for thousands of acres of aspen trees in Colorado. While
Haggerty recognizes that her study is only a preliminary experiment,
she argues that the surrounding area is "saturated" with
radio waves from televisions, radios, microwave ovens, weather radar
and cell phones that are contributing to the demise of these
forests.

"It
appears that there may be negative effects on the health and growth
of aspens from the radio frequency background," said Haggerty.

But
trees are not the only victims falling dead to radio waves. According
to researchers at Chandigarh's
Panjab University in India, radiation
from mobile phones is a key factor in the decline
of honey bees throughout Europe and the United States. The
experiment was conducted by putting two cell phones that were powered
on for a total of one half hour per day inside one bee hive while
putting dummy models of cell phones in another. Three months later,
researchers found a severe decline in honey bees in the active cell
phone infested hive. In addition, the queen bee in the powered cell
phone hive produced less eggs.

Whether
it's plants or bees, researchers and everyday citizens like Haggerty
alike have proven that radio waves have an adverse effect on the
surrounding environment and hope that it will change the point of
views of doubters and help find ways to protect the environment.

Haggerty's
paper sparked interest in Wayne Shepperd of the Forest
Service's Rocky Mountain
Research Station, and he had Haggerty present her data at the
regional conference on forest decline in Fort Collins in 2008. From
there, the paper was accepted at the North American Forest Ecology
Workshop at Utah State University and is now published in the
scientific journal.

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